STEPHEN  Bo  WEEKS 

CL^SS  0F1886;PH.D.  THE  JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNIVERSITY 


OF  THE 

UNMIRSinnf  ©F  NdDIIl  CAMIM 
TIE  WEEIKS  COLUECTmON 


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CpSlO.O^d^T^ovt 


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THE  MALUNGEON  TEEE  AND  ITS  FOUE 
BEANCHES.      '.^.-i  ,/f/t  I 

BY   WILLIAM   ALLEN    DROMGOOLE. 


Somewhere  in  the  eighteenth  century,  before  the  year 
1797,  tliere  appeared  in  the  eastern  portion  of  Tennessee,  at  that 
time  the  Territory  of  North  Carolina,  two  strange-looking 
men  calling  themselves  "Collins"  and  "Gibson."  They 
had  a  reddish-brown  complexion,  long,  straight,  black  hair, 
keen,  black  eyes,  and  sharp,  clear-cut  features.  They  spoke 
in  broken  English,  a  dialect  distinct  from  anything  ever 
heard  in  that  section  of  the  country.  They  claimed  to  have 
come  from  Virginia  and  many  years  after  emigrating,  them- 
selves told  the  story  of  their  past. 

These  two,  Vardy  Collins  and  Buck  Gibson,  were  the 
head  and  source  of  the  Malungeons  m  Tennessee.  With  the 
cunning  of  their  Cherokee  ancestors,  they  planned  and  ex- 
ecuted a  scheme  by  which  they  were  enabled  to  "  set  up 
for  themselves  "  in  the  almost  unbroken  Territory  of  North 
Carolina. 

Old  Buck,  as  he  Avas'  called,  was  disguised  by  a  wash  of 
some  dark  description,  and  taken  to  Virginia  by  Vardy  where 
bo  Avas  sold  as  a  slave.  He  was  a  magnificent  specimen  of 
physical  strength,  and  brought  a  fine  price,  a  wagon  and 
mules,  a  lot  of  goods,  and  three  hundred  dollars  in  money  be- 
ing paid  to  old  Vardy  for  his  "likely  nigger."  Once  out  of 
Richmond,  Vardy  turned  his  mules'  shoes  and  struck  out  for 
the  Wilderness  of  North  Carolina,  as  previously  planned. 
Buck  lost  little  time  ridding  himself  of  his  negro  disguise, 
swore  he  Avas  not  ihe  man  bought  of  Collins,  and  followed  in 
the  wake  of  his  fellow-thief  to  the  Territory.  The  proceeds 
of  the  sale  were  divided  and  each  chose  his  habitation ;  old 
Vardy  choosing  Newman's  Ridge,  where  he  Avas  soon  joined 
by  others  of  his  race,  and  so  the  Malungeons  became  a  part  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Tennessee. 

This  story  1  know  to  be  true.     There  are  reliable  parties 

745 


nn 


746  THE   ARENA. 

still  living  who  received  it  from  old  Vardy  himself,  who  came 
here  a  young  man  and  lived,  as  the  Malungeons  generally 
live,  to  a  ripe  old  age. 

The  names  "•  Collins  "  and  "  Gibson  "  were  also  stolen  from 
the  white  settlers  in  Virginia  where  the  men  had  lived  pre- 
vious to  emigrating  to  North  Carolina. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  more  satisfactory  method  of  illus- 
trating this  peculiar  race,  its  origin  and  blood,  than  by  the 
familiar  tree. 

Old  Vardy  Collins,  then,  must  be  regarded  as  the  body,  or 
main  stem,  in  this  State,  at  all  events. 

It  is  only  of  very  late  years  the  Malungeons  have  been 
classed  as  families.  Originally  they  were  tribes.,  afterward 
clans.,  and  at  last  families.  From  old  Vardy  Collins  the 
first  tribe  took  its  name — "Collins" — or  as  they  call 
it,  "  Collinses."  Others  who  followed  Vardy  took  the 
name  of  Collins  also.  Old  Benjamin  Collins,  one  of  the 
pioneers,  was  older  than  Vardy,  but  came  to  Tennesee  a  trifle 
later.  He  had  quite  a  large  family  of  children,  among  them 
Edmund,  Mileyton  (supposed  to  have  meant  3Iilto7i)^  Marler, 
Harry,  Andrew,  Zeke,  Jordan.  From  Jordan  descended  Cal- 
loway Collins  who  is  still  living  and  from  whom  I  obtained 
some  valuable  information. 

But  to  go  back  a  step.  Benjamin  Collins  was  known  as 
"  old  Ben,"  a.nd  became  the  head  of  the  Ben  tribe.  Old 
Solomon  Collins  was  the  head  of  the  Sols.  The  race  was  in- 
creasing so  rapidly,  by  emigration  and  otherwise,  that  it  be- 
came necessary  to  adopt  other  names  than  Collins.  They 
fell,  curiously  enough,  upon  the  first  or  Christian  name  of 
the  head  of  a  large  family  connection  or  tribe.  Emigrants 
arriving  attached  themselves  as  they  chose  to  the  several 
tribes.  After  awhile,  with  an  eye  to  brevity,  doubtless,  the 
word  tribe  was  dropped  from  ordinary,  every-day  use.  "  The 
Bens^''  "  the  >S'o/s,"  meant  the  Ben  and  Sol  tribes.  It  appears 
that  no  tribe  was  ever  called  for  old  Vardy,  although  as  long 
as  he  lived  he  was  the  recognized  head  and  leader  of  the  en- 
tire people. 

This  is  doubtless  due  to  the  fact  that  in  his  day  the  settle- 
ment was  new,  and  the  people,  and  the  one  name  Collins 
covered  the  entire  population. 

The  original  Collins  people  were  Indian,  there  is  no  doubt 
about  that,  and  they  lived  as  the   Indians  lived  until  some- 


THE  MALUNGEON  TREE  AND  ITS  FOUR  BRANCHES.  747 

time  after  the  first  white  man  appeared  among  them.  All 
would  huddle  together  in  one  room  (?),  sleep  in  one  common 
bed  of  leaves,  make  themselves  such  necessary  clothing  as  na- 
ture demanded,  smoke,  and  dream  away  the  good  long  days 
that  were  so  dreamily  delightful  nowhere  as  they  were  on 
Newman's  Ridge. 

The  Collins  tribe  multiplied  more  and  more;  it  became 
necessary  to  have  names,  and  a  most  peculiar  method  was  hit 
upon  for  obtaining  them. 

Ben  Collins'  children  were  distinguished  from  the  children 
of  Sol  and  Vardy  by  prefixing  the  Christian  name  either 
of  the  father  or  mother  to  the  Christian  name  of  the  child. 
For  instance,  Edmund  Ben,  Singleton  Ben,  Andrew  Ben, 
and  Zeke  Ben,  meant  that  Edmund,  Singleton,  Andrew,  and 
Zeke  were  the  sons  of  Ben  Collins.  Singleton  Mitch,  Levi 
Mitch,  and  Morris  Mitch,  meant  that  these  were  the  sons  of 
Mitchel  Collins.  In  the  next  generation  there  was  Jordan 
Ben  (a  son  of  old  Benjamin  Collins)  who  married  Abby  Sol, 
had  a  son  who  is  called  (he  is  still  living,  as  before  stated) 
Calloway  Abby  for  his  mother.  The  wife  before  marriage 
takes  her  father's  Christian  name  ;  after  marriage  that  of  her 
husband.  Calloway's  wife,  for  instance,  is  Ann  Calloway. 
It  is  not  known,  and  cannot  by  any  possibility  be  ascertained  at 
what  precise  period  other  races  first  appeared  among  the  "  Col- 
linses." For  many  years  they  occupied  the  Ridge  without  dis- 
turbance. The  country  was  new,  wild,  and  the  few  straggling 
settlements  were  glad  of  almost  any  human  neighbors.  More- 
over, these  strange  people,  who  were  then  called  the  "  Ridge- 
manites,"  the  "  Indians,"  and  the  "Black-Waterites  "  (because 
of  a  stream  called  Black  Water,  which  flowed  through  their 
territor}-,  the  bed  of  which  was,  and  is,  covered  with  a 
peculiar  dark  slate  rock  which  gives  a  black  appearance  to  the 
stream),  had  chosen  the  rocky  and  inaccessible  Ridge,  while 
the  fertile  and  beautiful  valley  of  the  Clinch  lay  open  and 
inviting  to  the  white  settlers.  The  Ridgemanites  were  not 
striving  for  wealth  evidently,  and  as  land  M^as  plentiful  and 
neighbors  few,  they  held  their  bit  of  creation  without  molesta- 
tion or  interruption  for  years.  They  were  all  Collinses,  as  I 
said ;  those  who  followed  the  first-comers  accepting  the 
name  already  provided  them.  There  was  no  mixture  of 
blood ;  they  claimed  to  be  Indians  and  no  man  disputed  it. 
They  were  called  the  "  Collins  tribe,"  until  having  multi- 


748  THE  ARENA. 

plied  to  that  extent  it  was  necessary  to  divide^  when  the 
descendants  of  the  several  pioneers  were  separated,  or 
divided,  into  clans.  Then  came  the  Ben  clan,  the  Sol  clan, 
the  Mitch  clan,  and  indeed  every  prominent  head  of  a  large 
relationship  was  recognized  as  the  leader  of  his  clan,  which 
always  bore  his  name.  There  was,  to  be  sure,  no  set  form  or 
time  at  which  this  division  was  made.  It  was  only  one  of 
those  natural  splits,  gradual  and  necessary,  which  is  the  sure 
result  of  increasing-  strength. 

They  were  still,  however,  we  must  observe,  all  Collinses. 
The  main  tree  had  not  been  disturbed  by  foreign  grafting, 
and  while  all  were  not  blood  descendants  of  old  Vardy  they, 
at  all  events,  had  all  fallen  under  his  banner  and  appro- 
priated his  name. 

The  tree  at  last  began  to  put  forth  branches,  or  rather 
three  foreign  shoots  were  grafted  into  the  body  of  it,  viz : 
the  English  (or  white),  Portuguese,  and  African. 

The  English  branch  began  with  the  Mullins  tribe,  a  very 
powerful  tribe,  next  indeed  for  a  long  time  to  the  Collins 
tribe,  and  at  present  the  strongest  of  all  the  several  branches, 
as  well  as  the  most  daring  and  obstinate. 

Old  Jim  Mullins,  the  father  of  the  branch,  was  an  English- 
man, a  trader,  it  is  supposed,  with  the  Indians.  He  was  of  a 
roving,  daring  disposition,  and  rather  fond  of  the  free 
abandon  which  characterizes  the  Indian.  He  was  much 
given  to  sports,  and  was  always  "  cheek  by  jowl "  with  the 
Cherokees  and  other  tribes  among  which  he  mingled.  What 
brought  him  to  Newman's  Ridge  must  have  been,  as  it  is 
said,  this  love  for  freedom  and  sport,  and  that  careless 
existence  known  only  to  the  Indians.  He  stumbled  upon 
the  Ridge  settlement,  fell  in  with  the  Ridgemanites,  and 
never  left  them.  He  took  for  a  wife  one  of  their  women,  a 
descendant  of  old  Sol  Collins,  and  reared  a  family  known  as 
the  '•'•  Mullins  tribe."  This  is  said  to  be  the  first  white 
blood  tjjiat  mingled  with  the  blood  of  the  dusky  Ridge- 
manites. 

By  marriage  I  mean  to  say  (in  their  own  language)  they 
"  took  up  together,"  having  no  set  form  of  marriage  service. 
So  old  Jim  Mullins  took  up  with  a  Malungeon  woman,  a 
Collins,  by  whom  he  had  a  large  family  of  children.  Some 
time  after  he  exchanged  wives  with  one  Wyatt  Collins,  and 
proceeded   to    cultivate    a   second   family.      Wyatt    Collins 


THE    jMALUNGEON    TREE    AND    ITS    FOUR    BRANCHES.    749 

also  had  a  large  family  by  his   first  wife,  and  was  equally 
fortunate  with  the  one  for  w^hom  he  traded  her. 

After  the  forming  of  Hancock  County  (Tennessee)  old 
Mullins  apd  Collins  were  forced  to  marry  their  wives  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  the  land,  but  all  had  children  and  grand- 
children before  they  Avere  lawfully  married. 

The  Mullins  tribe  became  exceedingly  strong,  and  remains 
to-da}^  the  head  of  the  Ridge  people. 

The  African  branch  was  introduced  by  one  Goins  (I  spell 
it  as  they  do)  who  emigrated  from  North  Carolina  after  the 
formation  of  the  State  of  Tennessee.  Goins  was  a  negro, 
and  did  not  settle  upon  the  Ridge,  but  lower  doAvn  on  Big\ 
Sycamore  Creek  in  Powell's  Valley.  He  took  a  Malungeon  | 
woman  for  a  wife  (took  up  with  her),  and  reared  a  family 
or  tribe.  The  Goins  family  may  be  easily  recognized  by 
their  kinky  hair,  flat  nose  and  foot,  thick  lips,  and  a  com- 
plexion totally  unlike  the  Collins  and  Mullins  tribes.  They 
possess  many  negro  traits,  too,  which  are  wanting  to  the 
other  tribes. 

The  Malungeons  repudiate  the  idea  of  negro  blood,  j^et 
some  of  the  shiftless  stragglers  among  them  have  married 
among  the  Goins  people.  They  evade  slights,  snubs,  cen- 
sure, and  the  law,  by  claiming-  to  have  married  Portuguese, 
there  really  being  a  Portuguese  branch  among  the  tribes. 

The  Goins  tribe,  however,  was  always  looked  upon  with  a 
touch  of  contempt,  and  was  held  in  a  kind  of  subjection, 
socially  and  politically,  by  the  others. 

The  Mullins  and  Collins  tribes  will  fight  for  their  Indian 
blood.  The  Malungeons  are  not  brave ;  indeed,  they  are 
great  cowards  and  easily  brow-beaten,  accustomed  to  receiv- 
ing all  manner  of  insults  which  it  never  occurs  to  them  to 
resent.     Only  in  this  matter  of  blood  will  they  "  show  fight." 

The  Portuguese  branch  was  for  a  long  time  a  riddle,  the 
existence  of  it  being  stoutly  denied.  It  has  at  last,  how- 
ever, been  traced  to  one  Denhan,  a  Portuguese  who  married  a 
Collins  woman. 

It  seems  that  every  runaway  or  straggler  of  any  kind 
whatever,  passing  through  the  country  took  up  his  abode, 
temporarily  or  permanently,  with  the  Malungeons,  or  as  they 
were  then  called,  the  Ridgemanites.  They  were  harmless, 
social,  and  good-natured  when  well  acquainted  with  one  — al- 
though at  first  suspicious,  distant,  and  morose.     While  they 


750  THE  ARENA. 

have  never  encouraged  emigration  to  the  Ridge  they  have 
sometimes  been  unable  to  prevent  it. 

Denhan,  it  is  supposed,  came  from  one  of  the  Spanish 
settlements  lying  further  to  the  South,  settled  on  Mulberry 
Creek,  and  married  a  sister  of  old  Sol  Collms. 

There  is  another  story,  however,  about  the  Denhans.  It 
is  said  that  the  first  Denhan  came  as  did  the  first  Collins 
from  North  Carolina,  and  that  he  (or  his  ancestors)  had 
been  left  upon  the  Carolina  coast  by  some  Portuguese  pirate 
vessel  plying  along  those  shores.  When  the  English  wrested 
the  island  of  Jamaica  from  Spain,  in  1655,  some  fifteen  hun- 
dred Spanish  slaves  fled  to  the  mountains.  Their  number 
grew  and  their  strength  multiplied.  For  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years  they  kept  up  a  kind  of  guerilla  warfare,  for  they 
were  both  savage  and  warlike.  They  were  called  "moun- 
tain negroes,"  or  "  maroons."  The  West  Indian  waters 
swarmed  with  piratical  vessels  at  that  time,  the  Portuguese 
being  the  most  terrible  and  daring.  The  crews  of  these 
vessels  were  composed  for  the  most  part  of  these  "  mountain 
negroes."  When  they  became  insubordinate,  or  in  any  way 
useless,  they  were  put  ashore  and  left  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves. It  is  said  the  Denhans  were  put  ashore  on  the  Caro- 
lina coast.  Their  instincts  carried  them  to  the  mountains, 
from  which  one  emigrated  to  NeT\'man's  Ridge,  then  a  part  of 
the  North  Carolina  territory. 

So  we  have  the  four  races,  or  representatives  among,  as 
they  then  began  to  be  called,  the  Malungeons ;  namely,  the 
Indian,  the  English,  the  Portuguese,  and  the  African.  Each 
is  clearly  distinct  and  easily  recognized  even  to  the  present  day. 

The  Portuguese  blood  has  been  a  misfortune  to  the  first 
Malungeons,  inasmuch  as  it  has  been  a  shield  to  the  Goins 
clan  under  which  they  have  sought  to  shelter  themselves  and 
to  repudiate  the  African  streak. 

There  is  a  very  marked  difference  between  the  two,  how- 
ever. There  is  an  old  blacksmith,  a  Portuguese,  on  Black 
Water  Creek,  as  dark  as  a  genuine  African.  Yet,  there  is  a 
peculiar  tinge  to  his  complexion  that  is  totally  foreign  to 
the  negro.  He  has  a  white  wife,  a  Mullins  woman,  a  de- 
scendant of  English  and  Indian.  If  Malungfeon  does  indeed 
mean  mixture,  the  children  of  this  couple  are  certainly  Ma^ 
lungeons.  The  blacksmith  himself  is  a  Denhan,  grandson 
of  the  old  Portugese  emigrant  and  a  Collins  woman. 


THE  MALUNGEON  TREE  AND  ITS  FOUR  BRANCHES.  751 

This,  then,  is  the  account  of  the  Malungeons  from  their 
first  appearance  in  that  part  of  the  country  where  they  are 
still  to  be  found,  Tennessee. 

It  will  be  a  matter  of  some  interest  to  follow  them  down 
to  the  present  day.  Unlike  the  rest  of  the  world  they  have 
progressed  slowly.  Their  huts  are  still  huts,  their  charac- 
teristics and  instincts  are  stdl  Indian,  and  their  customs  have 
lost  but  little  of  the  old  primitive  exclusive  and  seclusive 
abandon  characteristic  of  the  sons  of  the  forest. 


AT  A  PATEIAECHS'   BALL. 


NO-NAME     PAPER. 


From  pomps  of  flowers  the  music  floats 
In  peals  of  long  luxurious  notes, 
High  o'er  the  glimmering  wax-clad  floor 
Where  lights  their  tempered  largess  pour, 
And  where,  gay  Avaifs  on  music's  tide, 
With  arrowy  grace  the  dancers  glide. 

How  sumptuous  all  this  festal  scene  ! 
Wliat  maids  and  youths  of  daintiest  mien  ! 
What  gallant  men,  what  queenlike  tread 
Of  matrons  rich-bediamonded ! 
What  radiance,  fragrance,  art,  mirth,  ease, 
— What  mockery  ovei'mantling  these  ! 

For  here  in  our  New  World,  hard- won, 
A  century  since,  with  sword  and  gun, 
Our  New  World  that  by  right  made  bold 
We  tore  from  talons  of  the  Old, 
In  rebel  rage  whose  cry  still  rings 
Through  history  with  the  scorn  of  kings- 
How  sad  such  creeds  and  codes  to  scan, 
Degenerate,  unrepublican  ! 

This  haughty  belle,  that  simpering  beau. 
Once  roamed  Versailles  and  Fontainebleau  ; 
This  pui'se-proud  fop,  that  dame  chill-souled. 
Through  White's  and  Almack's  oft  have  strolled. 
We  know  them  each  ;  their  signs  live  yet  — 
Snob,-  egotist,  plutocrat,  coquette  ! 

Ah,  brave  Republic,  young,  fire-eyed, 
Were  these  the  boons  you  prophesied  ? 
That  freedom  chiefly  should  make  free 
Monopolist,  upstart,  Pharisee? 
That  sweet  fraternity  should  glance 
Calm  on  such  glacial  arrogance  ? 
That  Avise  equality  should  find 
Such  chasms  of  caste  still  rend  mankind  ? 

752 


n 


Photomount 

Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 
Syracuse,  TJ.  Y. 

PAT.  JAN  21,  1908 


?*Sr^^' 


■>'*M 


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00032198522 

FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


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